20 Boxes and The Ancient UHaul – Packing The Shack

If there is one thing that everyone can agree on when it comes to moving, it’s that packing pretty much sucks. Just the mere act of having to sort through the junk drawer(s) and clear out the basement are enough to make any human wish for the moving box fairy. When two kids are making sure it is double the work, you very quickly stop sorting through boxes and just bust out the tall garbage sacks headed straight for the Salvation Army.

Yesterday was the last of our packing days and most definitely the worst of them. At least, when you begin, there seems to be progress. At the end, it is just piles of junk that may be important, but who cares?

Ken has been allotted the manly task of moving everything we aren’t taking (which is mostly everything we haven’t yet given away) into storage. He is the king of tetris when it comes to stacking and making everything fit. It’s quite the skill, really, even if it’s only useful once every 6 years.

He spent a majority of the day (and many days before), arranging and re-arranging, making trip after trip to and from. So proud of his work, we had to document it for posterity.

After that, Ken took a brief rest from the heavy lifting so that we could go pick up the trailer. UHaul has always been a good friend to those of us who live their lives in perpetual mobility. Yesterday, though, we had a moment of pause in that universe.

All was well as we pulled up to Kean Auto on the Old Island Highway.

We met Phil – who happens to be the third major Phil on this journey.

But, his #3 status and kismet Phil-ness did very little to help ease our minds when we saw the rust bucket that we’d be towing the 20 boxes and a mattress we gave ourselves room for on this journey.

If this 4X8 trailer could talk (with a Texas license plate), it would more than likely have seen a couple hundred thousand kilometers since it was made in 1902. From the shockingly rusty bolts to the little “quick claims” stickers pasted on the giant dents in the sides of the trailer, we seriously thought it had to be a joke.

You’ve got another one, right? Ken asked our new pal Phil.

Ummmm, no. Phil was not impressed.

Ken decided to go with the adventure angle and figured it old and trustworthy rather than possibly being decommissioned on arrival in N.S. Please, oh please, let this thing actually make it to Nova Scotia.

So, Phil hooked us up…and that was the point where I realized that the end and the beginning had converged.

And so it began, the trailer filling up, the house emptying out, us all starting to get that things were changing. Family was in and out all day lending a big hand getting everything done. But, it wasn’t until the cousins headed out the door that the tears let loose and we knew it was time to say goodbye.

At about 9:15 p.m., I looked around the empty house. We’d sleep on blow-up mattresses and deliver the coffee pot to storage in the morning. This was it.

But, not, of course, before we all get some serious sleep. Heck knows no one has spent much time in snooze mode since all of this started.

Tomorrow, a ferry ride and the open road.

Tags: Canada, family, featured, Kids, moving, Our Big Earth Media Co., packing, UHaul

Category: THINK GREEN